Daley, Horcoff lift Stars to victory over Devils
Trevor Daley and Shawn Horcoff scored in the second period to help the Dallas Stars recover after giving up a two-goal lead and beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 on Saturday night.
Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza each had a goal and an assist in the first period for the Stars, and Kari Lehtonen finished with 28 saves.
Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas and Scott Gomez scored for the Devils and Cory Schneider stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced through two periods. Keith Kinkaid replaced Schneider to start the third and finished with three saves.
Merrill and Gelinas scored 3:20 apart to tie the score at 2-2 at 7:46 of the second period. Lehtonen was screened by teammate John Klingberg and never saw the shot from Gelinas, which went under Lehtonen’s right shoulder.
Dallas had a golden opportunity to regain the lead at 10:42 of the second when Travis Morin, recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League earlier in the week, had a great chance for his first NHL goal in front of the net, but Morin’s wrist shot hit the near post. Morin was the Texas Stars’ leading scorer with 24 points before being called up.
Daley got the tiebreaker with 5:05 left in the period and Horcoff restored the two-goal lead less than two minutes later.
Daley beat Schneider short side with a slap shot from the right circle for the first goal of his 11-year career against the Devils. Roussel assisted with a pass from the slot.
Horcoff’s goal was his first goal in 11 games and came on a wrist shot near the far post. Vernon Fiddler set Horcoff up with a pass from the left circle.
The Devils pulled to 4-3 when Gomez put in a rebound with 1:07 remaining in the third with a sixth skater on the ice.
Dallas took a 1-0 lead on Seguin’s NHL-leading 23rd goal with 5:31 to go in the first. Erik Cole sent an easy pass into the top of the slot, and Seguin one-timed the puck past Schneider.
The goal was Seguin’s fifth in the last four games and 16th in the last 16.
Seguin assisted 2 1/2 minutes later as Spezza tried to put the puck into the right side of the net, retrieved it and attempted a wraparound shot from the left side, and then got the puck back and lifted it into the upper left corner.
New Jersey’s best scoring chance in the first came when Michael Ryder’s shot hit the right goalpost.
Stars Left wing Ryan Garbutt sat out the first game of his three-game suspension for slew-footing Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien, and left winger Travis Moen (upper-body injury) did not dress.
New Jersey was without veteran left wing Michael Cammalleri for most of the final two periods after he left the ice with an undisclosed injury.
This story was originally published December 13, 2014 at 11:10 PM with the headline "Daley, Horcoff lift Stars to victory over Devils."